Eels
Record Review
Reviewed by Matt Dentler, Fri., Aug. 8, 2003
Eels
Shootenanny! (DreamWorks) The Eels craft the sort of dormitory melancholy you would use to cry yourself to sleep if you weren't too busy musing at how clever it all is. Five albums into their career, this outlet for perpetually depressed singer-songwriter E has developed a smart and ragged record called Shootenanny! Through painful pleas, E makes a mockery of the modeling world ("Fashion Awards"), runs amok before cartoon time ("Saturday Morning"), and longs for a girl with a dirty mouth ("Dirty Girl") because, as he puts it, she's "someone I can trust." Shootenanny! has all the soft harmonies and lush production of 2000's Daisies of the Galaxy, but while that masterpiece was an homage to symphonic pop, this one is rooted in Southern blues. No matter the musical inspiration, the lyrical muse is still E's self-doubt and alienation. The schtick is getting a bit stale by now, but he nevertheless manages to throw in a few choice melodies (especially on the blissfully catchy "Somebody Loves You") to make it still worth crying over.
The Eels play La Zona Rosa on Saturday, Aug. 9.
